#Third-Party Presidential Candidates

[deadpresidents]

How dangerous is RFK Jr to Biden?

First of all, I think it's important to note that RFK Jr. isn't going to be a threat to anybody unless he gets ballot access in November. I believe he's officially gained ballot access in one state so far and looks to have met the requirements in about eight or nine others. I don't know the exact number today, but that seems to leave at least 40 states that he still has to work to gain access to.

Now, if he works out a deal with the Libertarian Party for their nomination, it would get him very close to getting on the ballot in every state. If he -- and the Libertarian Party -- are smart, they'll figure out a way to work together in order to achieve that. Otherwise there is just no way that he'll make the kind of splash that the media is suggesting. Sure, if he only gets on the ballot in a handful of states that happen to be battleground states, he can certainly play the part of spoiler. But he can't do that as a write-in candidate in states where he isn't officially on the ballot.

But, honestly, I think RFK Jr. would draw more voters away from Trump than Biden. Yes, RFK Jr. was a lifelong Democrat before making this bid for the Presidency as an independent, but his anti-vaccine, conspiracy-fueled worldview is much more aligned with Trump's voters and the MAGA cult. I think it's possible that more people would be willing to vote for RFK Jr. because they see him as a less dangerous, (somewhat) less insane version of Trump than traditional Democratic voters who would be willing to vote for Kennedy because President Biden is old. I believe it would hurt Trump more than it would hurt Biden.

The most important thing to watch for is ballot access, though. If RFK Jr. can't get on the ballot in the majority of the states he's going to be a non-factor. It is not easy to get nationwide ballot access without the support of an established party's nomination -- like the Libertarians -- and it's already almost April. Announcing his running mate this early was a necessity if he's going to run as a true independent because some states require the identity of the ticket in order to get on the ballot in the general election. But unless they partner with the Libertarians, RFK Jr. is going to need to race against the clock to meet the requirements -- which are often different from state-to-state -- for ballot access in as many states as possible.

[confusedgoldenflower]

The Free and Equal debate when landback came up.

Everyone: land back. Ppl hurt. Land back. Land back.

Jasmine: here’s what it means, I got a native vp, I’m hosting a PANEL of INDIGENOUS ppl for CREATE this policy. If you want in, hit me up

[havegaysex]

Why are you telling people to vote for the guy committing genocide :/

because voting is not an endorsement it's harm reduction.

Trump is going to be at best doing the same as Biden and likely much worse for Palestinians and all the countries suffering from American Imperialism than Biden is.

Republicans want to bring back child labor and get rid of social security, medicare, Medicaid. As someone who is surviving on Medicaid and social security I don't want those taken away. The Republican majority house already put a lot of limits on food stamps in this past term and I don't think we'll still have food stamps if we get a republican Congress and a Republican president.

They've made it pretty clear that if they get a republican Congress and a Republican president they're going to enact project 2025 and call a conference of states and try and take our rights back to the days when only wealthy white men had any rights when women and racial minorities had no rights, they want to make it illegal for LGBT+ folks to safely exist in public and get lifesaving healthcare.

In short

Do I support every single thing Biden has done as president?

No.

Do I like him?

Not particularly. But I'm still voting for him because apathy is not a choice.

Do I think that Joe Biden having another term means that we can actually make more progress for labor rights, trans healthcare, abortion access, advancement of the rights and protections for disabled people and so much more?

Yes absolutely.

Do I think that the genocide in Gaza needs to end and the United States needs to stop sending weapons to israel?

Yes, I think that un restricted flow of humanitarian aid into Palestine needs to happen, the siege needs to stop, and the country of Israel and the United States need to be held accountable at an international level. I think that the soldiers of the IDF/IOF need to be held accountable for their war crimes and pillaging that they continuously post evidence of on social medias. I'm trying to put a read more here so ce I've put a few linked articles and quotes from them.

A quote from the article below:

"While our map focuses solely on high school aged youth (age 13-17), some states, such as Oklahoma, Texas, and South Carolina, have considered banning care for transgender people up to 26 years of age. "

I've seen lawmakers in some states try to make it felony punishable by life in prison to get your trans child healthcare to keep them alive because they want to make it illegal for us to exist and a legal for anyone who helps us exist.

some quotes from the article above:

"Led by the long-established Heritage Foundation think tank and fueled by former Trump administration officials, the far-reaching effort is essentially a government-in-waiting for the former president’s second term — or any candidate who aligns with their ideals and can defeat President Joe Biden in 2024. With a nearly 1,000-page “Project 2025” handbook and an “army” of Americans, the idea is to have the civic infrastructure in place on Day One to commandeer, reshape and do away with what Republicans deride as the “deep state” bureaucracy, in part by firing as many as 50,000 federal workers. “We need to flood the zone with conservatives,” said Paul Dans, director of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project and a former Trump administration official who speaks with historical flourish about the undertaking. “This is a clarion call to come to Washington,” he said. “People need to lay down their tools, and step aside from their professional life and say, ‘This is my lifetime moment to serve.’” The unprecedented effort is being orchestrated with dozens of right-flank organizations, many new to Washington, and represents a changed approach from conservatives, who traditionally have sought to limit the federal government by cutting federal taxes and slashing federal spending. Instead, Trump-era conservatives want to gut the “administrative state” from within, by ousting federal employees they believe are standing in the way of the president’s agenda and replacing them with like-minded officials more eager to fulfill a new executive’s approach to governing. The goal is to avoid the pitfalls of Trump’s first years in office, when the Republican president’s team was ill-prepared, his Cabinet nominees had trouble winning Senate confirmation and policies were met with resistance — by lawmakers, government workers and even Trump’s own appointees who refused to bend or break protocol, or in some cases violate laws, to achieve his goals. While many of the Project 2025 proposals are inspired by Trump, they are being echoed by GOP rivals Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy and are gaining prominence among other Republicans. And if Trump wins a second term, the work from the Heritage coalition ensures the president will have the personnel to carry forward his unfinished White House business. “The president Day One will be a wrecking ball for the administrative state,” said Russ Vought, a former Trump administration official involved in the effort who is now president at the conservative Center for Renewing America. Much of the new president’s agenda would be accomplished by reinstating what’s called Schedule F — a Trump-era executive order that would reclassify tens of thousands of the 2 million federal employees as essentially at-will workers who could more easily be fired. Biden had rescinded the executive order upon taking office in 2021, but Trump — and other presidential hopefuls — now vow to reinstate it."

"There’s a “top to bottom overhaul” of the Department of Justice, particularly curbing its independence and ending FBI efforts to combat the spread of misinformation. It calls for stepped-up prosecution of anyone providing or distributing abortion pills by mail."

Personally I think that voting for Joe Biden is better than someone who wants to enact this stuff on day one. It's like they read handmaid's tale and want to make that the reality of this country.

"Chapter by chapter, the pages offer a how-to manual for the next president, similar to one Heritage produced 50 years ago, ahead of the Ronald Reagan administration. Authored by some of today’s most prominent thinkers in the conservative movement, it’s often sprinkled with apocalyptic language." Ronald Reagan is a big reason we have a lot of problems we have today with our economy and with a lot more things. The people that supported Ronald Reagan do not need another term in office.

A quote from the article linked below:

"Trump has given no indication that he would be more sympathetic to Palestinian claims, nor that he would place more pressure on Israel to agree to a ceasefire. “The approach of the United States would be that Israel needs to win this war, it was attacked brutally,” Trump’s ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, describing how Trump would act. Friedman is now a campaign surrogate for Trump."

Personally I think Trump telling Israel to finish the job is indicators that another Trump presidency doesn't mean that weapons would stop being sent to Israel from United States

I fail to see how another term of Donald trump will be any better for the victims of the ongoing genocide in Palestine than President Joe Biden.

i think our system is absolutely messed up and broken but I don't think abstaining from voting is going to actually help.

[faramirsonofgondor]

As an American, I have been incredibly worried for the upcoming election and what will happen to our country, which I think is in part due to a lot of fear-mongering that has been spread across social media. I’ve seen many people say that we must choose between Biden or Trump, because there’s just no way a third party candidate will win. However I’ve been doing some reflecting and I feel like the only reason third parties aren’t being elected is because of that attitude. If people really tried than a third party candidate would have a good chance at winning, but since everyone is too scared to vote for them, it won’t happen. Ultimately, even if the candidate I vote for doesn’t win, I’ll at least have my integrity and know that I voted for someone who I agree with, rather than based on whatever party I most heavily identified with.

Honestly, after doing a good amount of research, I can say that the only person I will vote for is Jasmine Sherman. They are around 38-39 years old, and have some amazing policies in store for the future such as: better accessibility and accommodations for people with disabilities, guaranteed housing to help solve homelessness in America, universal healthcare, modified weather & ecology policies, delegalizing child marriage, fix the issues within the adoption and foster care system, implementing a better taxation system, better policies for trans rights & protections, replacing social security with universal basic income, and better school policies.

Read more about them on their website, you can donate there as well: https://www.jasminesherman2024.com/

[lordknightmon]

like I don't actually think Biden is going to be worse than Trump but it is kind of at the point where it's like how many more billions of dollars does he have to send to Israel until people stop acting like it's the morally correct thing to just give him the presidency on the flimsy promise that under his administration things are going to get better. Like sure things under Trump would get worse but they're already pretty awful and I don't have much faith in Biden's administration to fix things like I don't want more of this I want things to start getting better

[princesssarcastia]

okay listen. airing a u.s. political pet peeve here.

setting aside the issue of to-vote-for-biden-or-to-not-vote-for-biden in 2024 and the arguments for and against,

please don't lie to people and tell them voting for a third party presidential candidate is a good idea. please....please don't do that. it won't work. it won't help you. if you want to vote for a third party candidate as a "fuck you" to the republicans or the democrats or both, okay. go for it. but don't tell people that will help, don't expect it will help, it will do exactly nothing.

vote third party in your village, town, school district, city, county, state elections! vote for third-party candidates in your u.s. house races! in those kinds of races a third-party or nonpartisan candidate can have a decent chance of winning, depending. but it 100% won't work for president, and outside some very specific circumstances, probably also won't work in the u.s. senate.

the "third-party" presidential candidates running with most actual established political parties (green party, libertarian party) are not your friends any more than trump or biden are.

[marxism-leninism-meowism]

am i literally the only one that's actually read through all of jasmine sherman's policies bc how are these ppl saying they'll vote for them okay with their incredibly weird gun policy

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Any hope that the Republican Party has that it will reclaim Arizona's 11 Electoral College votes in the 2024 presidential election will likely hinge on the party's appeal to the growing number of independents in the state.

However, as the New York Times' Trip Gabriel reports, if Donald Trump is the GOP's presidential nominee the odds of a win in the state worsen because of his unpopularity in the once reliably conservative state.

As the report notes, President Joe Biden, if he is the Democratic nominee, might also struggle to win all the votes belonging to the independents who show up at the polls in 2024.

According to one former Republican turned independent, it will be either Biden or a third-party candidate who will receive her vote even if the former president isn't the GOP nominee.

“The entire Republican Party went so far to the right,” lamented Sheri Schreckengost, 61, before adding, “Donald Trump changed all that for me. The way things are now, there’s no way I’d vote for a Republican.”

Richard Mocny, a retiree who left the GOP because of Trump, added, "I think we have bigger problems than just Trump being re-elected. Polarization in this country is just fierce. I believe in looking at some of the new third parties popping up.”

The Times report notes, "Arizona’s independent voters, a sampling of whom were interviewed after having participated in an earlier New York Times/Siena College poll, are sure to be just as essential to Mr. Biden next year as they were in 2020. His 10,500-vote margin in Arizona, less than one percentage point, was his narrowest of any state. The Electoral College map of states likely to be the most contested in 2024 has narrowed to a smaller handful than usual: Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin."

Independent Margot Copeland, stated keeping Trump out of the Oval Office was paramount.

"I’ll get to the polls and get everybody out to the polls too,” the retiree said before warning, “It’s very important that Trump does not get back in.”

[runalongprincevaliant]

What do you think about Cornel West as a presidential candidate?

[deadpresidents]

Any third-party candidate in a post 1900 presidential contest who could have made a decent or average, if unspectacular, President of the USA?

Former President Theodore Roosevelt was a third-party candidate in 1912 against incumbent Republican President Taft and Democratic nominee (and eventual winner) Woodrow Wilson, so I think he's an obvious pick. Other than that, most of the major third-party candidates wouldn't have been great choices because they were racist protest nominees like Strom Thurmond or George Wallace. Ross Perot doesn't deserve to be compared with Thurmond or Wallace, but I don't think he would have been any good as President. Maybe Robert M. La Follette Sr., who did fairly well as a third-party challenger to President Coolidge and Democratic nominee John W. Davis in 1924?

[healerinchief]

I received a call from the office of the California Secretary of State on Friday while I was still in China. I didn’t feel safe sharing this update until I was stateside because I had been harassed for by law enforcement for being American in the privacy of my hotel room while on holiday with family.

I was informed that even though the county I filed my POTUS write-in application in for the primaries accepted and stamped it with their approval… they were mistaken in doing so and that I would not be certified as an Independent in this election because I am choosing not to be affiliated with a party that currently has ballot access in the state.

I was informed that I can however run in the November general election as an Independent write-in candidate in the state of California if I meet certain criteria (which I was aware of before and am working toward).

I am looking for 54 registered (or who are qualified and willing to be registered) California voters, who would like to be my helpers because I believe together we can make a great positive impact on our state, country, and world.

We have the opportunity of making history together if you would be willing to be my volunteers, electors, and signature collectors between April and August.

Please reach out to me as soon as possible if you’re interested in supporting the dark horse in the 2024 Presidential Election and I will fill you in on all the official details so we can prepare to be successful in signature and vote collecting in the state of Californa for the November election.

If you have friends in California that you think would be interested in breaking up the duopoly and living in a more loving, logical, and liberty-oriented country… please send them my way way too.

I am also open to doing interviews to plant more seeds, because ultimately this isn’t about me winning… but about America winning and I believe she’s and her citizens are worth it.

Love, Logic, and Liberty,

Sorinne - Healer in Chief

💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

[liberaltakesusa]

Fox News and the Democratic Ticket

My dad had on Fox News yesterday. (This is despite him telling me multiple times that I only get biased news because I watch MSNBC even though I literally never watch cable news because I don't trust any cable news channel. I find that a bit ironic. I suppose Fox News isn't biased? Oh, and I get my news from reading both slightly leaning left and right-wing sources and kind of meet them in the middle.)

All I heard is that a reasonable Democratic ticket would have Joe Manchin running as president. Seriously? Joe Manchin? So basically a conservative running on the Democratic ticket?

Actually, Joe Manchin should run as a third-party candidate. No liberal would vote for him. He would split the conservative vote.

I'd be okay with that.

[robertreich]

No Labels Isn't What It Claims to Be

The “No Labels” Party is not what it pretends to be. It’s a front group for Donald Trump.

Now I understand, if you’re sick of the two major parties, you might be intrigued by a party that claims to be a “common sense” alternative that finds the middle ground.

But if you or anyone in your life is planning to vote for No Labels — or any third party — in 2024, please watch and share this video first.

Here are three things you need to know.

First, No Labels is a dark money group with secret far-right donors. Investigative reporting has revealed that they include many of the same Republican donors who have pumped huge sums of money into electing candidates like Trump and Ron DeSantis. They also include the rightwing billionaire Harlan Crow, who spent years secretly treating Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to a lifestyle of the rich and famous.

If the No Labels Party is backed by Trump donors, in an election where Trump is on the ballot, there’s actually a label we should give to “No Labels.” Clearly, they’re a pro-Trump group.

Second, the premise No Labels is based on — that Donald Trump and President Biden are at equally extreme ends of the political spectrum — is preposterous.

Trump has been impeached twice, found by a jury to have committed sexual assault, is facing 91 criminal charges in four separate cases — two of them in connection with an attempt to effectively end American democracy.

There is no “equally extreme” candidate as Trump!

Finally, the structure of the Electoral College means that as a practical matter, a third party only draws votes away from whichever major party candidate is closest to it. No third party candidate has ever won a presidential election.

And in this particular election, when one of the major parties is putting up a candidate who threatens democracy itself, we cannot take the risk.

Donald Trump has already tried to overturn one election and suggested suspending the Constitution to maintain power. It is no exaggeration to say that if he takes the White House again, there may not ever be another free and fair election.

Democracy won by a whisker in the last presidential election. Just 44,000 votes in Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin — less than one tenth of 1 percent of the total votes cast nationwide — were the difference between the Biden presidency and a tie in the Electoral College that would have thrown the election to the House of Representatives, and hence to Trump.

If candidates from No Labels— or any other third party, like the Green Party or the Libertarian Party —  peel off just a fraction of the anti-Trump vote from Biden, while Trump voters stay loyal to him, Trump could win the top five swing states comfortably and return to the Oval Office. And No Labels’ own polling shows they would do just that!

Let me be absolutely clear. Third-party groups like No Labels are in effect front groups for Trump in 2024, and should be treated as such.

The supposed “centrism” No Labels touts is nonsense. There is no middle ground between democracy and fascism.

Please share this video and spread the word.

[curiositypolling]

okay I don't want too much discourse here, I'm just curious where the numbers are (re tumblr), considering how much there is about it

also apologies to the uhhh rest of the world I'm sure youre sick of hearing about this stuff

pls reblog for sample size etc

(before anyone makes any ‘no trump option’ jokes, I figured on the gay communism webbed site it would just get troll votes)

[maxknightley]

Which Dungeon Meshi characters would vote for Biden?

laios is a single-issue voter, and that issue is "more funding for biology research." since both biden and trump handled the novel SARS coronavirus poorly, he would not trust either candidate to do what he wants. therefore he would write in the name of a prominent dragon expert. (if dragons don't exist in this hypothetical, substitute some real-world megafauna, like elephants or moose.)

falin can't vote until she sorts out the fact that she's legally dead.

marcille is definitely the "really into ruth bader ginsburg" brand of turbolib. that being said, at fifty years of age, she's just old enough to remember her parents complaining about his anti-busing efforts, and more than old enough to remember the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. even more importantly, however: she would be really put off by his tendency to make gaffes and ramble about weird shit. she thinks Optics and Being Presidential are very important. she would therefore start a short-lived and ultimately unsuccessful movement to try and get Harris nominated instead.

chilchuck is a union man at heart, so he would call a vote to determine whether the union as a whole endorses biden or condemns both candidates. if they vote to condemn, he just stays home and gets day-drunk instead

senshi doesn't vote.

izutsumi isn't 18 yet.

kabru phone-banks for biden as part of an elaborate plan to run for state senator, then votes third party and lies about it.

toshiro is a foreign national. also, he doesn't watch the news. for all he knows or cares, obama is still president

[itssideria]

Genuine question, really not sure what to do/who to vote for- uh do you have any suggestions? Protesting yes, but what now- today's like endless bad news

hey, anon.

i'm assuming you're referring to my post on the 'vote blue no matter what' gang — i wrote that in a complete (and justified) fit of anger. i should start by saying i am not american, or palestinian — i am an arab who grew up in an arab country, though, and all of us have long since grown sickened and enraged with american imperialism.

my honest answer? i don't know. i'm not american. i'm not a politician. maybe i'm some horrifically idealistic piece of shit but i just think that brazenly funding a genocide, lying about it, and then bombing the only country that tries to prevent it should earn you the death penalty, but oh well.

@/fairuzfan has posted a lot about this — she's a palestinian in the states. not tagging her bc we aren't mutuals. she has stated that she won't vote in the presidential elections at all, but rather at local levels and congress. one person has stated that they are engaging in activism more than ever, forming communities, movements, working their way up. other people will be voting for a third party candidate they agree with, such as Cornel West or Claudia de la Cruz — you can read up on their stances for yourself, i'm not active in US politics. some will threaten to withhold their vote from Biden, whether they are serious of pretending, as that may scare him into changing his tactics.

none of these are foolproof. most of them prevent nothing. i am aware that for americans this shit feels like life and death — it's what all of you say, every four years.

however, and i cannot state this enough, i am so past the point of caring. my entire region has been fucking devastated by your nation. egypt can't threaten suez access because it'll get invaded. yemen and syria and iraq are dealing with past and current bombing. the entire fucking gulf sucks your country's dick to get oil money to build vanity projects and hire more slave labour. and palestine? palestinian blood will run thick with the weight of the crimes the us committed against them.

for once in their stable, unaffected fucking lives, i want americans to pretend—pretend!—the rest of the world exists. for ONCE, i want americans to say "fuck this, he committed genocide, i will never write his name on my ballot". for ONCE, i want americans to sacrifice something, ANYTHING—you barely live under a democracy as is. poc americans report no improvement under biden compared to trump. white queer people think they'll be protected and so shout at the need to throw the developing world under the bus.

there are no good options. but dear God, just don't put the name of the man funding a genocide on your fucking ballot. it didn't save anyone four years ago. it won't now.